Suspects Face Lineups In Cta, Tavern Holdups

October 22, 1986|By Philip Wattley.

Police lineups were scheduled Tuesday for five suspects in the armed robbery of passengers aboard two Chicago Transit Authority buses on the West Side Sunday night and early Monday. Lineups were also scheduled for three men and a woman suspected of being part of a robbery gang that killed a West Side tavern owner and raped a waitress during a wave of recent holdups.

The bus robbery suspects were arrested near 14th Street and Ashland Avenue Monday night by Sgt. Randolph Barton and three other Monroe Street District tactical officers.

Several suspects, who were picked up on the street corner, implicated the others, according to District Cmdr. Thomas Kelly, who ordered a canvass of the area where the holdups occurred.

The five, all in their late teens or early 20s, were being held pending the lineups to determine if any of 14 persons who claimed to have been passengers on the two buses could identify them.

The bus first robbery occured at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday after a Blue Avenue route bus stopped at 13th Street at Racine Avenue, and two men wearing Halloween masks jumped aboard.

One, wearing a skeleton mask, put a knife to the throat of the driver, David Gage, and warned, ``Don`t hit the alarm.`` His companion opened the rear exit door allowing eight other men, all about 20 years old, to storm aboard the bus.

The gang punched several of the victims in the face and robbed seven of the 10 passengers of $72.

About 90 minutes later a gang of 10 youths, believed to have been the same pack of robbers, boarded a bus at 14th Street and Ashland Avenue.

The youths, some armed with guns and knives, punched and robbed seven passengers of $955 and jewelry. One of the passengers, who was hit on the head with a bottle, required treatement at the University of Illinois Hospital.

The second series of lineups were scheduled for three men and a woman believed to be part of a tavern robbery gang involved in 30 holdups since August.

Wojtek Rutkowski, 35, a Polish immigrant, was fatally shot, and his wife, Halina, was wounded during one of the robberies on Sept. 21 in the tavern owned by the couple at 3801 W. Diversey Ave.

Lt. John Minogue of the Grand-Central Detective Area said the four suspects were among 11 men and seven women who were arrested Monday by Gang Crimes North detectives. The detectives used sledge hammers to batter down apartment doors at at 2712 W. Evergreen Ave. and 2719 W. Potomac Ave.

Of the 18, one was charged with unlawful possession of weapons; one with illegal possession of ammunition; two with failure to possess state firearms owners identification; two with illegal possession of marijuana; and 12 with obstruction of service after occupants of the apartments refused to answer the doors to be served with search warrants, according to Lt. Ronald Garcia, of the Gang Crimes North Division.

During the raids police confiscated a small amount of marijuana, a rifle and a sawed off shotgun.

Police also believe members of the same gang were responsible for the Sept. 9th rape of a waitress during a robbery at another West Side tavern, according to Gang Crimes Unit North Lt. Frank Radke.